Local movers’ campaign benefits domestic violence survivors on Mother’s Day

A local business works every year to celebrate mothers and help domestic violence survivors by collecting donations from Eastside locals.

Two Men and a Truck’s Eastside franchise, headquartered in Woodinville, serves most Eastside cities, including Bothell, Kenmore, Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Issaquah and Sammamish, along with parts of Seattle.

The franchise has celebrated each Mother’s Day since it was founded nearly 12 years ago with the Movers for Moms campaign. The company dropped donation boxes at numerous organizations on March 20 throughout the Eastside. On May 11, drivers will collect the donation boxes and move them to The Sophia Way shelter in Bellevue.

“We do it every Mother’s Day to help domestic violence [survivors] so that they can have a nice Mother’s Day,” said John Phillips, marketing coordinator for the Eastside franchise. “We wanted to make it so that women in need would have something nice to open up [and] give them a way to have a nice Mother’s Day.”

Two Men and a Truck partners with The Sophia Way annually to collect items that will benefit local women who are seeking shelter. This year, the shelter asked specifically for pillows, sheets, towels, cleaning supplies and various toiletries. Most items will directly benefit the sheltered women, while the cleaning supplies will help maintain the Bellevue shelter.

Numerous local business host donation boxes and as of May 4, St. John Vianney Church in Kirkland has collected the most, with six full boxes. Phillips said he expected more by the end of the campaign.

“We know that women who have been in abusive relationships are particularly vulnerable.” Phillips said. “We have a heart for those people who are staying in women’s shelters because it’s not fair to them or to the children because of the relationship that resulted in this. It’s important for us to not only give back to the community in other ways, but we feel like this particular way is really interesting.”

Movers for Moms is a national program throughout 42 states, wherever Two Men and a Truck operates. Last year, the organization collected more than 295,000 donations in 2017 and more than 1 million items throughout the program’s history.

The Eastside franchise was originally headquartered in Kent before it merged with the Kirkland franchise and moved to Woodinville two years ago. Previously, the Eastside franchise supported multiple shelters and began partnering with The Sophia Way when it moved to Woodinville.

Two Men and a Truck is one of the largest national moving companies and serves single-family homes, apartments and businesses.

The company also runs a donation campaign in the fall called Movers for Mutts. The campaign operates in the same way as Movers for Moms, but instead asks for donations for local animal shelters.